Watching Paulette, Rene, and Four Disturbances in the Atlantic

Hello everyone!

Today, September 10th, marks the official climatological peak of hurricane season, though activity doesn’t usually start subsiding until later in October. Given the time of year and all the conditions both seasonal and subseasonal that are favorable for enhanced tropical cyclone activity, it’s no surprise we have so much to keep an eye on in the Atlantic.

This post will take a fairly deep dive into the forecasts for Paulette and the two disturbances in the Gulf of Mexico. Rene poses no threat to any landmass and thus won’t be covered. I’ll also mention the next waves coming off Africa, though there’s so much near-term uncertainty regarding how those entities interact that I’m not going to spend much time trying to explore the medium-term range of possible outcomes which spans from a hurricane in the Caribbean to a tropical storm dissipating over the far eastern Atlantic. I’ll revisit these waves on Saturday once we have a better idea of how they’re developing offshore.

TS Paulette

Satellite imagery today shows Paulette struggling significantly with dry air and wind shear attributable to an upper-level low located west of the system. Note on this “sandwich” satellite imagery that the low-level center visible as the swirl of low clouds in white is located south/southwest of the mid-level center and its associated deep convection which is visible as the red blob indicating very cold cloud temperatures. So long as the storm remains misaligned like this, it will not be able to strengthen, and in fact will continue to weaken.

This area-averaged sounding over Paulette valid tomorrow evening shows dry air and southwesterly shear continuing to impact the system as it continues moving NW. The benefit of looking at an area-averaged sounding like this is that the system’s circulation disappears (average the winds across a circular circulation and you get net zero) which allows us to peer into the system’s environmental wind field. From this, we can clearly see the southwesterly shear vector arising from a difference between low-level easterlies and mid/upper-level southerlies/south-southwesterlies.

Aside from attempting to separate Paulette’s low-level center form its mid-level center, this change in wind direction with height also has implications for the system’s track forecast. If the storm is able to retain really robust convection and maintain a deeper (albeit tilted) vortex, it will “feel” the steering influence of those upper-level southerlies. That means the storm will track farther north. If the system weakens and has a shallower vortex, it will be steered mostly by the low-level easterlies. As a result, a stronger Paulette tonight/tomorrow will wind up farther north by Saturday while a weaker Paulette will stay farther south.

By Sunday, Paulette will begin restrengthening and will make a turn to the west as upper-level flow shifts from southwesterly to easterly. This shift will be driven by the southwestward movement of the ULL currently shearing the system as well as the development of an upper-level ridge off the New England coastline. Note that on the area-averaged sounding over the circulation Sunday morning, winds throughout the atmosphere are out of the east at around 10-15 kts. This lack of change in wind speed or direction with height is the lack of shear that tropical storms need to strengthen.

So how long will the storm move west and how close to the US East Coast will it track? By Monday, the storm will turn towards the north, away from the East Coast. Whether this happens 500 miles offshore, as currently forecast, or 300 miles, or 800 miles, it’s not exactly clear. But I’m quite confident that this is not a system headed close enough to the East Coast to bring substantial direct impacts. Why?

This forecast map shows the upper-level pattern on Monday afternoon. There are three main features contributing to Paulette’s steering flow at this point: the upper-level low that previously had been steering the storm west, a new mid-latitude trough digging southeast through the Canadian Maritimes, and an upper-level low developing over eastern Florida. All of these features will be pushing Paulette north-northeast. If there were a big area of high pressure where that mid-latitude trough is located, I’d say watch out along the East Coast. But the pattern simply isn’t set up to allow those big ridges to hang out off the New England coast. Why not? Typhoon Haishen basically “undid” the jet stream amplification that Typhoon Maysak caused last week. So instead of a very wavy jet stream with slow-moving troughs and ridges, we have a flatter jet stream with features moving relatively quickly from west to east.

With that in mind, despite considerable uncertainty regarding how far west Paulette goes in the next 72 hours, not a single EPS ensemble member brings the system close enough to bring substantial direct impacts to the US East Coast. If you’re in Atlantic Canada, especially Newfoundland, you should keep a close eye on Paulette. Bermuda is the most likely landmass to see substantial direct impacts from Paulette as the storm turns north on Monday.

While rain/wind/storm surge is not expected along the East Coast from Paulette, the shoreline will still take a beating from the system in the form of powerful long-period swells. This animation shows forecasts for “wave power” over the next week as Paulette restrengthens and recurves off the East Coast. These swells will cause dangerous conditions for mariners as well as large breaking waves at exposed locations along the shoreline. If you’re an experienced surfer, enjoy the sweet waves. For everyone else, be mindful of the high rip current risk these waves will pose at beaches exposed to the ocean.

Gulf of Mexico Disturbances

Elsewhere in the Atlantic, we have two disturbances to keep an eye on for possible development in the Gulf of Mexico late this weekend into early next week.

This satellite loop shows one of those disturbances which is currently located just east of the Bahamas. The system is producing a lot of convection this afternoon which is impressive because this is the time of day least favorable for convection over tropical waters. That’s one sign that this disturbance is healthy. Another sign is that cirrus clouds produced by these thunderstorms are fanning out away from the system in an anticyclonic pattern, especially over the eastern half of the disturbance. Note the cirrus moving north to the north of the system, to the west on the southern side of the system, and east on the eastern side of the system. This indicates an upper-level environment favorable for further development.

The other disturbance is producing scattered thunderstorm activity just off the west coast of Florida this evening, but doesn’t look like much on satellite imagery.

By Sunday morning, both systems will be in the Gulf of Mexico. Looking at forecast guidance for this timeframe, it’s clear why model guidance and NHC forecasters are significantly more bullish on the eastern system. There’s a whole lot more moisture and instability available for that system to work with compared to the western system.

That said, any time you get a disturbance spinning over the very warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, it doesn’t take much for deep convection to develop and mix out any mid-level dry air, especially without any wind shear (there won’t be much if any shear in the Gulf this weekend). So we’ll keep an eye on both systems, even though I think the eastern one has a much better shot at becoming a tropical cyclone.

Here’s a look at afternoon ECMWF ensemble guidance for these systems. Note that pretty much no ensemble members develop the western disturbance beyond a brief TD. The range of possible outcomes for the eastern wave as depicted by the EPS ranges from no development at all to a mid-grade tropical storm. Given the favorable conditions expected in this area, my personal “upper limit” of what seems plausible from this system is a bit higher (perhaps in the strong tropical storm range).

If you’re in southern Florida, you should expect periods of breezy showers as this system passes by tomorrow. If you’re in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, or the Florida Panhandle, you should be paying attention to forecasts in case this system turns out to be something worth thinking more about.

Eastern Atlantic Systems

Out in the eastern Atlantic, there are two additional systems to keep an eye on for tropical development over the next few days. Both are clearly visible on satellite imagery this afternoon.

The central question regarding these systems is the extent to which they will interact over the next 24-48 hours. One possibility is that the western wave will move quickly west as its center develops under that northern lobe of convection south of the Cabo Verde islands. If that ends up happening, and the eastern wave moves offshore a little slower, the two systems will remain separate and we could see two named storms develop this weekend. Another possibility is that the western wave ends up consolidating its center farther west, moves more slowly, and interacts more significantly with the eastern wave. If that ends up happening, we may only get one storm to develop in this area.

A look at ensemble member forecasts for the next few days show two distinct “camps” representing each of the possibilities outlined above. Generally speaking, the ensemble members in the “fast and separate” camp are more threatening for interests in the Lesser Antilles, and eventually the Greater Antilles/US much later down the line. Ensemble members that show more interaction and an overall slower storm motion are substantially more likely to show the system recurving off into the open Atlantic like Rene and Paulette.

Which scenario is more likely? I’m not quite sure at the moment because the problem of “which vortmax will become dominant” is really hard to solve due to its dependence on nearly-random convective interactions. Once both waves are offshore late tomorrow/Saturday, I suspect we’ll have a much better idea of what will happen.

Until then, monitor forecast info closely and make sure your hurricane plan is ready to go if you’re reading from the Lesser Antilles. If you’re reading from anywhere northwest of Puerto Rico, check back in on Saturday to see what’s up and until then, don’t worry too much about these systems. There’s still plenty of time to watch and wait, painful as that may be.

As a reminder, if you’re interested in having my weather updates emailed to you, you can sign up using the box on the left sidebar of this website. If you’re interested in having my updates on an app for your phone, please search for the “Hurricane Tracker App” in the app store. If you’re interested in reading my tropical weather analysis while supporting a super cool crowdfunded hurricane research project, check out Mark Sudduth’s HurricaneTrack Patreon page.

-Jack